Not Again
by It's Just Apple Pie
Summary: Booth and Brennan, in preferably, season 5, or soon. Basically Booth and Brennan stop doing THEIR THINGS. And this is just the first chapter if you like this, then say so, and i'll post another chapter.....
1. Chapter 1

She didn't go into the field with me, anymore.

I didn't ask her if she wanted a piece of The Famous Apple Pie, anymore.

She didn't have Tia Food Take Out with me, anymore.

I didn't hug her, anymore.

It was both of our faults, but I started it.

I stopped calling her Bones.

I knew that it was hurting her, but I just _couldn't_. Not anymore.

I didn't want her to be hurting, but I _couldn't_.

If she was _Bones_ then she was _mine_, but she's not mine, not anymore.

I'm not sure if she ever was.

So we're falling apart, and it was both of our faults.

It might have been pride, defeat, or a loss in faith.

But at the end of the day we still didn't talk, stare, and smile. _Have a coffee_.

Not anymore.

She was engaged.

_Engaged to Hacker_.

It's almost hysterical that when she said that love could be real, that maybe it wasn't just science, I thought she loved _me_.

How foolish. Naive.

I should have known, I shouldn't have hoped.

So, after everything we've been through, I could barely look at her, anymore.

"Boss, can we talk?" I ask Cullen, playing with my hands nervously.


	2. Chapter 2

It's surreal to be doing this. How can I live with my self for leaving her? How can I live like this, as we are, now? I wish I could look at her. Work with her. Without my heart breaking every time I do.

I wish I could suck it up.

"Agent Booth! Of course." Cullen gestured toward the chair, I sat down, as instructed. I was silent, so he started on some small talk. "Great job on the case this week. I have to say, Booth; I didn't think you and Dr. Brennan would last another minute, in the beginning. You remember your first case together?" Cullen smirked, shaking his head.

I shuddered. I remember all to well. Just like, I will remember this.

"Actually, sir, that's what I need to talk about." I say, setting my jaw. Cullen looked dumb founded. "My partnership with Dr. Brennan." I specified, so he would understand.

"Yes, I see, is there something wrong?" Cullen's bushy eyebrows squished together, and he was concerned because I rarely talk to him about my partnership. Not like this.

This is where I had to be vague. He couldn't know _why_ I needed to sever the partnership. He just needed to know that I had to end it. Would he understand there was no changing my mind?

Then maybe this helpless dread could end.

"Yes. You see, I can't work with her anymore."

Cullen's lips resembled an o.

"I'm here because I want to request a new partner. Sir, _anyone_ else you can give me, would be highly appreciated."

There was a moment of awkward, disbelieving silence, and then Cullen started crying- well laughing and crying at the same time.

"Good one, Agent Booth. You got me there for a second." He clasped my shoulder and shook me.

"Sir, I'm serious." I say, and there is no amusement in my voice. He let go of my shoulder.

"You and Dr. Brennan have marvelous statistics." He reminded me; as if I could ever forget.

"Sir, I don't mean to sound rude, but how can I work with someone I can't look at?" I honestly want to know, because if there is a way, I'll do it.

Anything so I don't have to leave. Everything inside of me is screaming _no_. So, anything, I will do it, no hesitation.

I just can't look at her, anymore. I can't bare to. And it's selfish, but what can I do?

"Agent Booth, is this a personal matter?" The way Cullen said it made me feel so stupid. He won't let me ruin this praise for him without a reason.

_I should have known_.

"Yes." I say before I can think of lying, because I'm so sick of lies.


	3. Chapter 3

"I'm sorry, Booth, but I can't let you two split. Dr. Sweets will help you work through this"- Cullen was being rational, calm, though I knew he was frantic, panicking inside. Was that how Bones felt?

Was she aware of what she was doing to me?

"No." I spit. "I don't think you understand, Sir, I can't stand seeing her. I can't bring my self to even _look_."

"Give the therapy a try…" He really wanted me to consider that. "Or I'll have to suspend you, Booth."

"I won't. And if you think I need her to do my job, you are sadly mistaken."

"_Special Agent Seeley Booth_, you are a spectacular Agent, but honestly? What are you thinking? Dr. Temperance Brennan"-

"Is getting married!" I growl, interrupting him _again_. Am I begging to lose my job?

"I'm aware." He growls right back, disgusted.

"But you don't understand the significance of that."

"_Agent_ _Booth!_ You _will_ respect me, or you'll lose your job. I've never had a problem like this with you, you were always very respectful."

"I'm sorry, Sir, if I sound rude, disrespectful, annoyed, if you get the impression that I have somewhere better to be, alright? But, you really don't know what I'm going through. And I don't want to lose my job, because then I wouldn't be able to see my boy, but I can't, and won't, work with Dr. Brennan."

It was like Bones and Dr. Brennan are two different people. And Bones is gone.

I'll never have her. I thought she just out of my reach, but really? I was never even close. _I should have known_.

"Agent Booth, I can have you another job for you with the snap of my fingers, but I don't want you two to detach."

"Why?"

"Because you belong together."

"Oh, great, you too, Cullen, Sir, listen, you have two choices, okay? You give me another partner or fire me."

"Look, Booth, there's no saying this officially, so I'll just say it straight. I need you two to stay together, because I have a couple thousand dollars in that you will."

"Will _what_? Stay partners? And define partners, _sir_, because I don't think marrying someone times two of what I am qualifies as staying together."

"15,000 dollars, from my own pocket is a lot, Booth, so think about this, because if you leave your job as liaison of the Jeffersonian, it will be replaced quicker then the time it takes you to clean out your office, quicker then the time it takes me to fire you."

"Fuck you, _sir_." I say and walk away, but first I throw my badge and gun on his desk, violently. And I feel naked with out them, but I don't really care right now.

At least I still have Parker. I just have to find a job, but I will get one, and then I will have Parker, my boy, who loves me.

I left Cullen drooling at his desk, gasping, and open-mouthed, just as he slamming his hand hard down on his desk. And I mean _hard_.


	4. Chapter 4

"Dr. Temperance Brennan, it's so good of you to see me." Cullen smiled, politely. "You did a...good job on your latest case."

Dr. Brennan sat down, in the chair before her, "You said Booth came to see you?" She got right to the point, forgetting the small talk, because that's what she does. She is _Bones_, after all.

"Uh, yes, of course." Cullen clasped his hands together, in a painfully similar manner that Booth does, and she waited for Cullen to continue. "You see, Dr. Brennan, he wanted a new partner."

The words hung in the air, and seconds passed silently, except for the tick of a clock on Cullen's desk, between Cullen and Brennan.

Those seconds dragged to a whole minute, and when the clock was at it's 58th click, Dr. Brennan cleared her throat. "Did you give him"-

"No, you see, Dr. Brennan, I suggested that Sweets should talk to him, to both of you, and then he told me that I would have to fire him if I didn't get him a new partner."

"You fired him? Are you aware of _Parker_? Booth won't be able to see him, if he loses his job. You _know_ that."

"He suspended himself."

"W-what?"

"He threw his badge, and gun, on my desk, said 'fuck you', and left. Just walked right out that door."

"What did you say to him?" Dr. Brennan was getting more and more concerned for Booth. She knew something huge was wrong if he disrespected his boss, wanted a different partner, and quit his job.

However, the only thing she was thinking in that moment was _why_?

"That he was crazy to want to leave you, of course! Dr. Sweets can help him, Dr. Brennan, he is your theripist, we pay him for something."

"You're leaving this up to a theripist? Booth doesn't"-

"He said that it was personal matter, he gave me this look, like he wanted to stay, but he physically couldn't work with you anymore. He asked me how to work with someone you can't look at. He asked so curiously, so urgently, like he really would do _anything_. I don't think I remember being that passionate about anything, but hey, I'm not as shape as I used to be, you know."

"Why?"

"I'm surprised you even have to ask, Dr. Brennan." There was dreadful silence, until Cullen explained: "You're getting married."

"I have a right to get married, just like everyone else. Booth doesn't believe in my marriage…what do you want me to do?"

"Dr. Brennan, you're giving me the same look that he gave me. You two really got it bad, eh?"

"I don't know what that means."

"Oh, nothing, nothing." Cullen started shuffling papers on his desk, dismissing Dr. Brennan with out a word. Except Dr. Brennan didn't move, she wanted to know she could do to salvage what she could of her and Booth's relationship. "It was nice talking to you." Cullen gave her a hint.

"You haven't told me anything. You haven't- is this how the FBI handles things? Do you honestly think you're helping by ignoring your problems?"

"Booth's going to come back."

"You're so sure."

"You've been working together for five years, five years, Dr. Brennan, and just when Assistant Director Hacker and you are getting married, he can't bare to work with you. So if you want something to change on this matter, then you have to do it you're self." He spit the last two words.

"This is _my_ fault? He quit his job. This has nothing to do with me. He threw everything away."

"Oh, sure, sure, Dr. Brennan, you just keep telling your self that."

"Where is he, Cullen?" She asked, ignoring Cullen's dismissal, again.

"If it were me, I would be punching the fuck out of Hacker. Doesn't that sound stress relieving? That boy has to chill out with his 'I want to be a hero' bullshit. I just want to set one right to his jaw..." Brennan raised her eye brow. "But you know and I know that Booth prefers a riffle."

"The shooting range."

"Now, Dr. Temperance Brennan who identifies skulls for the FBI, you have the right to leave or to be escorted away."

She was already gone.


	5. Chapter 5

His knuckles bled, but still punched, and punched. It was concrete wall, in the FBI gym. He had been to the shooting range. He hadn't hit dead center, or even really close, once.

His mind was elsewhere.

Like what he should have said, like how he should have treated her.

He should have _known_ they were serious.

He was a good guy, a criminal record in high school, but a clean one now. He checked out.

No one was perfect. The past was, indeed, the past, and if Booth didn't believe that, then how could he accept what he had done- even if it was for his country, for the greater good?

Booth smashed his knuckle against the bloody, but cool wall.

Hard.

There was a crack.

He was so _mad_.

Someone opened the locker room door, and it swung closed loudly, they skidded across the shower room's wet floor. Now they were right behind Booth. He opened his palm against the wall, flexing his muscles.

Booth's ear twitched. His head fell.

Then he heard her voice, small, vulnerable. "Booth." He clenched his fist, and it stung. His breath caught, his knuckles stung, cracked painfully.

He didn't answer, he didn't turn around, and he didn't acknowledge her.

She was behind him, he felt her breathing, heard her footsteps, though barely.

Moving closer.

She gasped. He assumed she saw the blood. He grimaced; the next thing she would see was torn skin, disfigured, bloody, knuckles.

He closed his eyes, "Don't look." He whispered, his head still hanging between his shoulders.

But honestly, when had she ever listened to him?

She was tugging his shoulder, and she was trying to twist him toward her. He wouldn't budge.

He moved two inches, maybe, so that she saw his left angle, nose, ear, hair.

Not his eyes. He wouldn't allow their eyes to meet.

"Why are you covered in blood?" She asked, though the answer was quite obvious, so he didn't feel the need to answer. "Why would you ever conflict pain upon your self, Booth?" She asked, gripping his shoulder tighter.

He whipped her away, and finally faced her- their eyes finally met.

And he still felt that it was pointless to answer with words, but he did anyway.

"It hurts."

Brennan knew Booth was referring to him throbbing knuckles.


End file.
